Need tips on using flash with S90

I'd like to have some flash from the S90 for indoor shots without the harshness that comes with it doing it's own auto thing. Any tips for diffusing it and/or avoiding red eye?

Shooting against a strong backlight was kinda tricky and most shots in P mode just ended up too slow and fuzzy. I managed to claw this one back from oblivion using RAW and Lightroom but really it needed some fill light.

have you seen this thing?

That's awesome! Down to the local sports shop in the next few days I go to try this!

I assume the S90 is like my SD990 and will allow flash over ride +/- 2 stops in 1/3 stop increments, This will allow you to reduce the impact of the flash and use it as fill
Hans

hnikesch wrote in post #9272099
I assume the S90 is like my SD990 and will allow flash over ride +/- 2 stops in 1/3 stop increments, This will allow you to reduce the impact of the flash and use it as fill
Hans

Yes it will. I will have to pay more attention to that in future.

There's also a slow synchro mode that will help with fill flash...

Good stuff here thx

Auto mode on current Canon P&S cameras is abysmal. It seems that the Scene Modes are the new Auto.

One more idea besides others mentioned is to maintain distance from your subject and zoom to frame portraits. Distance reinforces light fall-off, to help avoid that blasted-with-light appearance. That, balanced with flash exposure compensation, will get your flash pics looking nicely filled and less flashed.

Dick try taking the flash to -2 indoors, it may be enough before looking at diffusers and the like. I got a couple of nice flash shots over Xmas, I'll put them up when I have a chance.

I'll experiment. I used the flash but I found it harsh and ended up pulling the dark levels right down in Lightroom because things like clothing have that horrible overexposed look to them. This one I pulled the levels down on (Yes I know it's wonky). I know the flash is very limited so any ways I can get a more natural looking light out of it the better. I saw there are ways to make a flash diffuser out of a cigarette packet. I'll have to look for one since I do not smoke.

A tissue would likely work well. And not as easy to do with the popup flash (and I wouldn't recommend on the S90) but I just used a piece of thin masking tape on another camera and it worked great. Ugly, but worked.

Dick: check out this post comparing diffuser vs. reflector vs. straight flash:

http://forums.dpreview​.com …rum=1010&messag​e=34089655

Don't forget your iso setting. If you boost the iso to 400 or 800 you can make the ambient loght more prominent in your image. This will make the flash effect more subtle - especially if you experiment a little with the flash exp comp.

I've had my S90 for about two weeks and the best flash setting for an indoor shot is no flash at all! The "low-light" setting works surprisingly well. It seems to first set a minimum shutter of 1/60 sec, then opens the lens as far as needed, then finally starts to crank up the ISO to preserve the 1/60. Even at ISO above 1600 the results are very good, and I like it better than the rather harsh flash, so close to the lens.

Try it and see, but I've been very impressed with the low-light setting.

Bernoulli wrote in post #9286382
I've had my S90 for about two weeks and the best flash setting for an indoor shot is no flash at all! The "low-light" setting works surprisingly well. It seems to first set a minimum shutter of 1/60 sec, then opens the lens as far as needed, then finally starts to crank up the ISO to preserve the 1/60. Even at ISO above 1600 the results are very good, and I like it better than the rather harsh flash, so close to the lens.

Try it and see, but I've been very impressed with the low-light setting.

Usually this works but here we had a situation where most of the subjects were set against a strong backlight. This resulted in the camera stopping down and underexposing the forground subjects whilst the background was blown out. The only way to combat this usually is to use fill flash.
I am not familiar with the use of fill flash on such a small compact as I usually use a speedlite and 'a better bounce card' to diffuse it. I was also unaware that slow synchro could be used to help as a fill flash in this type of situation as I had always assumed that it was for shooting subjects at night to expose the background or unusual light trails. You learn something every day.